Liberated and Enslaved. Borderland Documents 1939–1941 | Mieroszewski Centre

“Liberated and Enslaved. The Polish–Belarusian Borderland 1939–1941 in Belarusian Archival Documents” [«Vyzvalyenyya» i zanyavolyenyya. Pol’ska-byelaruskaye pamyezhzha 1939–1941 hh. u dakumyentakh byelaruskikh arkhivaw] is a unique collection of 137 previously unpublished documents from the National Archives of the Republic of Belarus and the State Archive of Public Organizations of the Grodno Region. It presents, for the first time, the experience of the Polish–Belarusian borderlands under Soviet occupation, as seen through the internal correspondence and reports of Soviet authorities.

The materials span the period between the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland in September 1939 and the German attack on the USSR in June 1941. They document how Soviet institutions were imposed, how collective farms were created, how religion and education were subjected to ideological control, and how local populations were repressed or coerced into submission. The documents also reflect local responses, including attempts to preserve autonomy and identity in the face of systematic Sovietization.

Edited by renowned Belarusian historian Professor Alexander Smalianczuk, the publication challenges the official Soviet and post-Soviet narrative of “liberation” and provides a stark contrast between propaganda and reality. Declared “extremist” by the Lukashenka regime in Belarus, the book is not only a contribution to historical scholarship but also a gesture of resistance and a powerful tool for preserving historical truth.